Today in History: Monday, Jan. 8

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307 – Jin Huidi, Chinese Emperor of the Jin dynasty, is poisoned and succeeded by Jin Huaidi. 387 – Siyaj K'ak' conquers Waka 871 – Alfred the Great leads a West Saxon army to repel an invasion by Danelaw Vikings. 1297 – François Grimaldi, disguised as a monk, leads his men to capture the fortress protecting the Rock of Monaco, establishing his family as the rulers of Monaco. 1454 – The papal bull Romanus Pontifex awards the Kingdom of Portugal exclusive trade and colonization rights to all of Africa south of Cape Bojador. 1499 – Louis XII of France marries Anne of Brittany in accordance with a law set by his predecessor, Charles VIII. 1547 – The first Lithuanian-language book, Simple Words of Catechism, is published in Königsberg. 1735 – Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. 1746 – Second Jacobite rising: Bonnie Prince Charlie occupies Stirling. 1790 – George Washington delivers the first State of the Union address in New York City. 1806 – Cape Colony becomes a British colony. 1811 – An unsuccessful slave revolt is led by Charles Deslondes in St. Charles and St. James, Louisiana. 1815 – War of 1812: Battle of New Orleans: Andrew Jackson leads American forces in victory over the British. 1828 – The Democratic Party of the United States is organized. 1835 – The United States national debt is zero for the only time. 1863 – American Civil War: Second Battle of Springfield 1867 – African American men are granted the right to vote in Washington, D.C. 1877 – Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle against the United States Cavalry at Wolf Mountain, Montana Territory. 1889 – Herman Hollerith is issued US patent #395,791 for the 'Art of Applying Statistics' — his punched card calculator. 1904 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system. 1912 – The African National Congress is founded. 1918 – U.S. President Woodrow Wilson announces his "Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I. 1920 – The steel strike of 1919 ends in a complete failure for the Amalgamated Association of Iron, Steel and Tin Workers labor union. 1926 – Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuỵ ascends the throne, the last monarch of Vietnam. 1926 - Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud was crowned King of Hejaz. 1936 – Kashf-e hijab decree is enforced by Reza Shah ordering the police to physically remove the Hijab from any woman in public. 1940 – World War II: Britain introduces food rationing. 1945 – World War II: Philippine Commonwealth troops under the Philippine Commonwealth Army units enter the province of Ilocos Sur in Northern Luzon and attack Japanese Imperial forces. 1956 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. missionaries are killed by the Huaorani of Ecuador shortly after making contact with them. 1961 – In France a referendum supports Charles de Gaulle's policies in Algeria. 1963 – Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. 1964 – President Lyndon B. Johnson declares a "War on Poverty" in the United States. 1971 – Bowing to international pressure, President of Pakistan Zulfikar Ali Bhutto releases Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from prison, who had been arrested after declaring the independence of Bangladesh. 1973 – Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched. 1973 – Watergate scandal: The trial of seven men accused of illegal entry into Democratic Party headquarters at Watergate begins. 1975 – Ella T. Grasso becomes Governor of Connecticut, the first woman to serve as a Governor in the United States other than by succeeding her husband. 1977 – Three bombs explode in Moscow, Russia, Soviet Union, within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. 1979 – Password Plus debuts on NBC. 1981 – A local farmer reports a UFO sighting in Trans-en-Provence, France, claimed to be "perhaps the most completely and carefully documented sighting of all time". 1982 – Breakup of the Bell System: AT&T agrees to divest itself of twenty-two subdivisions. 1989 – Kegworth air disaster: British Midland Flight 92, a Boeing 737-400, crashes into the M1 motorway, killing 47 of the 126 people on board. 1992 – US President George H. W. Bush vomits on Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa 1994 – Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov on Soyuz TM-18 leaves for Mir. He would stay on the space station until March 22, 1995, for a record 437 days in space. 1996 – An Antonov An-32 cargo aircraft crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire, killing up to 223 on the ground; two of six crew members are also killed. 2002 – President George W. Bush signs into law the No Child Left Behind Act. 2003 – Turkish Airlines Flight 634 crashes near Diyarbakır Airport, Turkey, killing the entire crew and 70 of the 75 passengers. 2003 – Air Midwest Flight 5481 crashes at Charlotte-Douglas Airport, Charlotte, North Carolina, killing all 21 people on board. 2004 – The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest ocean liner ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II. 2005 – The nuclear sub USS San Francisco collides at full speed with an undersea mountain south of Guam. One man is killed, but the sub surfaces and is repaired. 2009 – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake in northern Costa Rica kills 15 people and injures 32. 2010 – Gunmen from an offshoot the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda attack a bus carrying the Togo national football team on its way to the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations, killing three. 2011 – The attempted assassination of Arizona Representative Gabrielle Giffords and subsequent shooting in Casas Adobes, Arizona, in which five people were shot dead.